Coach Jones Hails His Dragons As He Looks To World League Challenge

Head coach Zak Jones reckons Wales’ men have given their World League hopes a boost after going unbeaten in a three game series against the United Staes.

The Dragons won one and drew the other two games against the world ranked No 29 team who were on a warm-weather training camp in Barcelona last weekend.

Now Wales can look ahead to their World League Rd 2 tournament in Belfast next month.

Jones said: “It was a very productive few days, all three matches were extremely competitive and so provided us with some great learning and development opportunities.

“Whilst we were a little disappointed not to have won all three matches, all in all, it was a positive first step into the competition phase of our build up to World League 2.

Dale Hutchinson’s goal earned Wales a 1-1 draw in the first match before strikes from Gareth Furlong and Owain Dolan Gray earned Jones’ side a superb 2-1 win.

Furlong, Rupert Shipperley and Steve Kelly then all netted as the final game ended in a thrilling 3-3 draw.

Jones, whose side are ranked five places below the USA, added: “The fact that the games were all very tight allowed us to further develop our tactical understanding at key moments.

“They highlighted the fact that we still need to improve our accuracy and execution in the final third in order to convert more of the opportunities we are creating.

“With a couple of training camps and a training game against a GB centralised training squad the group will be working really hard to improve in the areas identified prior to our test series against France at the end of Feb.”

The three test series against France in Paris will be followed by the World League Round 2 in Northern Ireland from March 11th-19th.